As blackouts get worse, almost half of Cuba is still without power

Over half of Cuba was without power Thursday night because of a lack of fuel and broken power plants. The government had no choice but to turn off the power to a large part of the Caribbean island nation.

Around dinnertime on Thursday, Cuba’s National Electric Union said it had a shortage of almost 1600 megawatts while demand was close to 3,200 MW. This meant that millions of people did not have lights, fans, or air conditioning as night fell.

Some parts of Havana lost power at different times during the day, but some provinces, like Pinar del Rio, a key farm and tobacco-growing area, were completely dark for part of the evening.

Things were better by Friday morning, but in a daily report, the government said that nearly a third of the island would lose power again as the day’s peak demand neared.

The recent increase comes after months of hours-long blackouts across Cuba. This is because Cuba’s old, broken-down oil-fired power plants keep breaking down, and the country’s Communist-run government, which is hurt by U.S. sanctions, has a hard time buying fuel on the world market.

A scary economic crisis, including severe shortages of food, fuel, and medicine, has caused a record number of Cubans to leave the island, making its problems even worse.